Shortage of nurses loom, outsourcing eyed at CCMC

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Medical Center is facing with a more serious problem with the impending resignation of at least 17 nurses within the month for a better opportunity abroad.

The resignations will leave the government-run hospital with only 183 nurses which the management said won’t be enough to cater to the needs of the patients given the upsurge of the number of admissions nowadays because of the dengue cases.

The Cebu City government however said they will study the feasibility of outsourcing nurses from manpower agencies to solve the problem of the lack of nurses.

The hospital considers the impending resignations as bad timing because it will imminently affect the hospital operation given the situation that CCMC is congested with dengue patients.

There are proposals to accept more volunteers but Mayor Michael Rama said that he is not so much amenable to the idea because he sees more disadvantages than advantages.

Rama said that volunteerism is not a brilliant solution when dealing with health and lives because they could not demand accountability from volunteers.

“What if some people die in the hands of volunteers, they could not be held liable because in the first place, we were not forced to hire them we are not compensating them,” Rama said.

He added that it also encourages laziness among regular employees
because they will entrust all the works to the volunteers.

Outsourcing of nurses, he said, is a possibility but he has to study first if it is practical and will not compromise the quality of health service the city wants to provide to its constituents.

He said that he is not even sure if there are manpower agencies that provide good nurses.

The provincial government is already outsourcing nurses to serve at the provincial government-run hospitals in the province. The practice, however, was criticized during the death of a tourism officer in Argao early this year because of the nurses and doctors alleged failure to give him the appropriate medical attention.

Critics said that contracted medical personnel do not have the passion to serve because they are less compensated.

In CCMC, a level 1 nurse receives at least P12,000 plus P1,000 monthly allowance. Higher level nurses receive more up to P28,000. (THE FREEMAN)